Active Towns Starting with the Green Parts w/ Victor Dover (video available)
In this episode, I welcome back Victor Dover of South Miami's Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning for an in-depth discussion about why starting with the green parts, the parks, greenways, open spaces, wilderness, and even street trees when planning our communities is critical. We also talk about the importance of getting our streets designed right and how that can help more people feel more comfortable while walking and riding a bike.
This episode has been produced as a video with some rich visuals, so to get to the full experience, click on this link
This episode has been produced as a video with some rich visuals, so to get to the full experience, click on this link
Victor Dover made the move from Alexandria, VA to Miami to co-launch the firm Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning with his business partner Joe Kohl some 34 years ago. Victor is a charter member of the Congress for the New Urbanism and has worked for many public agencies, developers, and citizen groups to create appropriate methods of land development regulations.
The two main inter-related themes Victor presents in this episode are when planning a community, start first with the “green parts”, the parks, greenways, and parkways and then shape the rest of the city around these accordingly and second, street design is the thing we can least afford to get wrong. It becomes obvious how these two themes are intimately related when we consider that our streets should be traffic-calmed people-oriented places, featuring beautiful tree canopies, frequently referred to as the lungs of the city.
And speaking of street design, that happens to be the title of the fabulous book Victor co-wrote along with John Massengale seven years ago and the truly big, breaking news is that Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns will be coming out as new, completely refreshed second edition in 2022. Here’s the first edition link if you can’t wait and want to get the original, which is highly recommended.
We also discuss the need to make our streets safe and inviting for “All Ages & Abilities” across all mobility modes drawing inspiration from Dutch cycling network design and from public spaces in Copenhagen and other beloved cities in Europe as well as historic places right here in the United States such as Alexandria, VA, Charleston, SC, and even Buffalo, NY.
We talk about normalizing the act of riding a bike to carry our everyday activities by creating environments that are comfortable for everyone through the implementation of protected and separated infrastructure paired with ultra-low speed shared spaces.
Additional Helpful Links:
Dover Kohl YouTube Channel – for an entire series of brilliant guidance
Barnes Dance or Pedestrian Scramble
Cities Aren't Loud, Cars Are Loud - NJB video
Designing Cities by Starting with the Green Parts - Frederick Law Olmsted
Miami Dade Parks Foundation - #LiveAParkLife
National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA)
Missoula Montana Downtown Master Plan and the Dover Kohl Update
Benton MacKaye - helped pioneer the idea of land preservation for recreation and conservation purposes
Gabe Klein - a good on article about Gabe
Incremental Development Alliance
Ross Chapin: Pocket Neighborhoods - Our Episode featuring Ross and our award winning video on Pocket Neighborhoods
Climate Planner book by Jason King
Steve Wright - a writer advising on issues of accessibility
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Credits:
All video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music:
Various mixes also by John Simmerman
Resources used during the production of this episode:
- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm
For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:
- Website
- Podcast landing pages
Background:
Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.
I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.
Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of A...